The present invention relates to a new and improved construction of a hay harvesting machine.
Generally speaking, the hay harvesting machine of the invention is of the type comprising at least one rake wheel which revolves about a vertical or upright shaft and contains a number of tine or prong supports equipped with raking tines. The tine supports are arranged to be pivotable about their lengthwise axis at a rotatably driven element or part mounted at the upright shaft. The tine supports extend essentially in tangential direction and are operatively connected with a control track or cam which is non-rotatably or rigidly connected with the upright shaft in order to pivot or rock the tine supports. The control track extends in a plane which is essentially perpendicular to the upright shaft.
A hay harvesting machine of this type is known to the art from Swiss Patent No. 474,940 and the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 3,546,868. With this hay harvesting machine the rotatably mounted and driven housing portion, supporting the tine support, is arranged above the stationary housing portion provided with the control track. The tine supports therefore are situated at a relatively great spacing above the ground. This, in turn, requires correspondingly long rake tines or prongs. Additionally, because of the drive provided for rotation of the upper housing portion, the entire weight is increased, and the structural height is correspondingly great. This large structural height particularly makes it difficult to rake below trees and bushes having low slung branches or the like. Moreover, this state-of-the-art hay harvesting machine additionally is afflicted with the drawback that the control track must be provided with a bowed-in portion in order to pivot the tine supports, which, viewed in the direction of rotation, extend rearwardly. This bowed-in portion or section of the control track has an opposite curvature in relation to the neighboring control track section. The control arms connected with the tine supports and guided in the control track are therefore subjected to a double deflection when moving in and out of this bowed-in control track section, which produces an increased wear.